Thursday, March 4, 2010

Musings on The Electronic Muse

I don't know about you, but the thought of starting a new set is nervewracking. It's not the technical aspect, but it's the conceptual aspect. This composition could be anything at all. And keep in mind that I want to be different and have something unique to bring to the dance music arena.

Getting the Nine Inch Nails Year Zero songs in Ableton Live format proved to be a turning point in my development as a musician. Before that the idea that I could be an electronic music composer and performer was impossible. I was dedicated to analog and I couldn't imagine not being in a band.

But the access to these songs opened up the possibilities of my DAW (digital audio workstation). I didn't have to sweat about actually working out how to make these songs, they were there in a really accessible format.

I don't want to go on for another thousand words about my history with learning how to do electronic music, the point is that I have gotten a really immense education in just a couple of years.

So I came back to Tom Cosm's website and find that it is much fancier but still has access to some amazing teaching tools and downloads. I loaded up one of his sets (Swagger) and accidentally dropped part of a Nine Inch Nails song into it. To add to the weirdness of this I have acquired a Novation Launchpad that opened up the possibilities of live performing and how flexible I can be in setting up a performance set.

This combination led to a 20 minute first take performance. After that I loaded three more NIN songs into performance mode and now I have four 20-25 minute long sets of my NIN remixes.

So now I have the sounds, the newest version of Ableton and a challenge: create a new and completely original live set for performance.

OK - no big deal, right? With all my knowledge and connection with different types of music there's still that - vastness - there's so many different courses I could take. Should I start with the drums or the bass? Should I use samples? What kind? What, ultimately, do I want to do with this?

And this blog is to keep it on track. Let's create a context:

My first all original performance piece.

My best compositions to date have had a certain amount of surprise and improvisation which is what gives it that Alec style of uniqueness. So let's take that into account. I want some kind of a milestone or a goal. Something I can pin on the wall. So the first step would be....

thinking....

setup trackcompose bass synth - come up with a couple of linescompose kick drum - come up with a couple of linescompose percussion - come up with a couple of lines